With the holiday weekend coming to an end, there was growing anxiety about whether, and when, the sniper would strike again.
NBC, MSNBC and News Services
Police were investigating whether a deadly shooting Monday night in Fairfax County, Va., was linked to the series of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area that have killed eight people and seriously wounded two others. Police were hunting for an assailant after a woman was fatally shot near a Home Depot store in Falls Church, Va., west of Washington. “A FEMALE HAS been shot and killed,” said Fairfax County Police Lt. Amy Lubas.
The woman, described as a white female, was fatally shot in the head while walking to her car just before 9:30 p.m. in the Home Depot parking lot of the Seven Corners Shopping Center, a 450,000-square-foot strip shopping center with a parking garage.
Police closed off roads in the area, where Routes 7 and 50 come together, WUSA-TV reported on its Web site. Interstates 66 and 95 are nearby.
Asked if there was a firm connection between Monday’s shooting and the previous attacks, Fairfax County police chief Tom Manger said late Monday that “it’s too early to tell at this point. However, we are working it and investigating it with that potential in mind.”
Sources told David Bloom of NBC News that members of the sniper task force were enroute to the crime scene in Falls Church.
“At this early juncture,” Bloom reported, “they have no basis - aside from the obvious similarities - to link it to the sniper, but they are understandably operating under the assumption that this could be another attack.”
WANTED: CHEVY ASTRO VAN
Early police reports suggested that a beige-colored Chevy Astro van, similar to the van spotted near the site of Friday’s Fredericksburg shooting, was spotted leaving the scene, Bloom reported.
Manger said Virginia authorities were looking for a cream-colored Astro van with a broken or inoperable right rear taillight.
Earlier, Virginia State Police said they were on the lookout for a white Chevrolet Astro van, last seen traveling east on Route 50 from Falls Church.
A police spokesman said roads were being closed in the area, about 10 miles west of Washington. The Maryland task force investigating the previous sniper attacks there and in Washington was conferring with Fairfax authorities to see if the shooting was related.
WEEKEND LULL
Residents in and around Washington, D.C., began the new work week Monday fearful that the sniper terrorizing the region would strike again after a weekend lull. In several counties around the nation’s capital, schools maintained a ban on outdoor activities.
President Bush said the killer “obviously loves terrorizing society.”
Montgomery County police discounted any link between the shootings and a case in Baltimore in which a former Marine was shot over the weekend in a domestic dispute. Members of the task force investigating the sniper attacks went to Baltimore to examine a white van that was seized in the case.
Citing police sources, NBC affiliate WBAL-TV reported that police also found an AR-15 rifle, shell casings, ammunition and a book about snipers in his apartment. A tarot card was found in the van and a sign on the dashboard read, “Gihad in America.”
“At this time, the task force believes this is not related to our sniper incidents,” said Louise Marthens, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman. The man was not charged or arrested, and was released Monday night shortly after the Falls Church shooting.
HALF-DOZEN SUSPECTS
As of Monday night, police had at least half a dozen potential suspects under around-the-clock surveillance.
On a white eraser board inside the building where the investigation is based, is a list of about two dozen potential suspects. Some names are being added, others dropped off, but at least six individuals are being watched constantly.
In his first public comments on the killings, President Bush told reporters Monday that “I’m just sick, sick to my stomach, to think that there is a cold-blooded killer at home taking innocent life. I weep for those who have lost their loved ones.”
There was no evidence to indicate whether the shootings were a form of foreign terrorism directed at Americans, Bush said. “But any time anybody is randomly shooting, randomly killing, randomly taking life, it’s cold-blooded murder, and it’s a sick mind that obviously loves terrorizing society.”
‘MAKING PROGRESS’
Earlier Monday, Montgomery County police Chief Charles Moose assured residents that “we are making progress” in the manhunt. He said he could not elaborate on the evidence gathered so far.
Moose said that people can now write as well as call with their tips. The address to write to is: P.O. Box 7875, Gaithersburg, Md., 20898-7875. Advertisement
But authorities tell NBC News that with the write-in address, Moose was inviting the killer to renew his dialogue with investigators, who have not heard from the sniper since he left a calling card proclaiming “I am God” at the school shooting Oct. 7.
The sniper, possibly aided by an accomplice who drives the getaway vehicle, has fired a single round into each of 10 victims, killing eight, in Washington and its suburbs since Oct. 2.
PATTERNS EMERGE
The increasingly brazen sniper had established patterns: preferring suburban gas stations; firing a single round; he hasn’t let two days pass without opening fire again; and, judging from a tarot card left at one of the shootings, he appears to enjoy taunting police.
Monday marked the sniper’s longest break since the killing spree began. Profilers say the long break could suggest the sniper is trying to outsmart police.
“Falling into a pattern is falling into a trap,” said Robert K. Ressler, a former FBI profiler who helped investigators track killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer. “People this deep into aberrant behavior aren’t just going to hang it up and call it quits. A week may go by now before they strike again, but I believe there are going to be more killings.”
Police on Saturday released composite images of a white box truck that witnesses reported seeing near a few of the shootings.
The two images, produced by the FBI based on witnesses from more than one shooting, show a flat-front white truck with a roll-up door in the back, a weathered paint job, a small dent in the back bumper and unknown dark purple or black writing on the side. The witnesses were unable to provide the exact wording on the truck or the license plate number, but told investigators it appeared to be an older model with a loud engine.
Moose said investigators are also working with witnesses to produce a similar composite sketch of a white Astro van with a ladder on the top, a vehicle that was seen leaving the scene of Friday’s deadly shooting at a gas station near Fredericksburg, Va.
Asked if the separate sketches meant the sniper may be using more than one vehicle, he said it “is not our goal to make any suggestions at all.” Montgomery County police released these composite images Saturday of a white box truck described by witnesses to at least two of the Maryland shootings.
BRAZEN FRIDAY ATTACK
The images were released as the reward for information leading to capture of the killer grew to more than $500,000.
The Friday slaying was the most daring to date, with the victim slain as a state trooper stood across the street.